Medical imaging is commonly used for disease prevention and diagnosis. In a typical scenario, a patient is positioned on/in a medical imaging device and an image of an internal patient volume is obtained. The patient is then discharged from the imaging center.
Eventually, the image is read by appropriate medical personnel to identify disease, track disease progression, or for any other purpose. The medical personnel may also determine whether to recommend any follow-up procedures. For example, it may be recommended to obtain a new image of the patient volume. Obtaining a new image requires scheduling a new patient visit to the imaging center, travelling to and from the imaging center, and setting up the patient and the medical imaging device to obtain the new image. These additional steps introduce many associated costs.
Some of these costs may be reduced by asking the patient to remain at the imaging center until medical personnel determines whether a follow-up imaging procedure is required. However, due to the typically-limited availability of qualified personnel, many hours may elapse between this determination and the original acquisition of the image. Moreover, due to the cost of medical imaging devices, any processes which increase imaging device down-time are discouraged. Accordingly, systems are desired to improve the efficiency of medical imaging.